HELSINKI: DFDS’ operating profit grew 35 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016 on surging cargo volumes and higher freight rates on its roll-on, roll-off shipping routes across northern Europe.
The Danish shipping, logistics, and trucking group’s earnings before interest and tax jumped to 271 million krone ($39.2 million) from 201 million krone a year earlier as revenue edged just 0.8 percent higher to 3.35 billion krone owing to currency movements and lower bunker surcharges.
Freight traffic grew by 16.6 percent across the network and cargo rates increased in contrast to lower passenger fares to propel the shipping division’s profit to 278 million krone from 165 million krone last year. Full-year cargo volume was up 21 percent on 2015.
Traffic on the Baltic Sea routes soared just over 31 percent during the fourth quarter, helped by the addition of a new route between Finland and Estonia, and North Sea shipments grew 7 percent on higher capacity and strong growth on the Sweden-Belgium and Netherlands-UK corridors.
Freight volume between the United Kingdom and France soared just short of 21 percent, almost three times the 7.2 percent rise in passenger traffic, as the company boosted capacity and the number of sailings on the route. Total freight volume on the Dover-Calais route, including rail and truck transport through the Channel Tunnel, by contrast, grew by a comparatively modest 5.2 percent during the quarter.
